


on the cusp

by gdgdbaby



Category: Captain Marvel (2019), Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Air Force Academy, F/F, Pre-Canon, Slice of Life
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-03-09
Updated: 2019-03-09
Packaged: 2019-11-14 05:42:29
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,357
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18046595
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/gdgdbaby/pseuds/gdgdbaby
Summary: Maria learned pretty early on that sharing a dorm room with Carol meant she'd basically never have to set an alarm clock anymore, but that doesn't mean she has tolikeit.





	on the cusp

**Author's Note:**

> with deepest apologies to anyone who actually knows how the air force works. thanks to a. and b. for looking this over!

"Can't sleep," Carol says, fingers digging into Maria's shoulder. "Let's spar."

Maria rolls over and pushes her nose into the mattress, groaning. She learned pretty early on that sharing a dorm room with Carol meant she'd basically never have to set an alarm clock again, but that doesn't mean she has to _like_ it.

"Come on," Carol continues, cajoling. "No one else is gonna be up right now, it's the perfect time to go."

Maria tries to burrow deeper into the sheets, but Carol wrestles her duvet away with the energy of someone actually happy to be awake at 0500 hours. Maria jerks onto her back again, arm flopping down next to her, eyes still closed. "You realize we have to be alive during graduation today, right?"

"Eh, I could take or leave it," Carol replies, and when Maria blinks her eyes open, Carol's brow is creased. "It's just a ceremony." The corner of her mouth twists into smile. "Mom and Dad aren't even here to celebrate."

"Don't you dare pull the parent card," Maria says, but she's already rolling off the bed.

 

 

They step out of Vandy at a quick trot. The morning is cool and dry. Four years at the Academy and Maria's still too used to the way the air always clings to your skin in New Orleans to really appreciate Colorado's charms, but they're about to receive their assignments and leave this place for good. Like so many other things, she's long since written it off as a lost cause.

The cadet gym won't be open for another forty-five minutes, which both of them knew already. "We gonna break in like last time?" Maria asks archly. "As I recall, General Mitchell wasn't too pleased about that."

"He was just mad he couldn't prove it was us," Carol says, jiggling the front doors. She gives the lock a longing glance before turning swiftly on her heel. "Let's just go to the fields."

If some of Maria's surprise shows on her face, Carol doesn't acknowledge it. "And what," Maria says, following her around the back of the building. "Climb the fence?"

"They wouldn't have taught it during basic if they didn't want us to put it into practice," Carol says, and Maria has several rebuttals on the tip of her tongue, but they all shrivel up when Carol starts actually climbing the fence, easy as anything. Maria sighs, glancing over her shoulder at the quiet tableau of campus behind her, and then she starts climbing too.

Carol hits the ground running; by the time they get to the soccer fields, sunlight is bleeding a little further into the sky, a layer of orange pushing up against a sea of purple. May means it's mud season, and though the grass has grown in and been trimmed, their boots still sink into the silt. It's gonna be hell later, getting the dirt out of them.

"Here's good," Carol says abruptly, and Maria narrowly dodges out of the way of her first swing.

"Hey, warn a girl," she says, unperturbed. She takes two more steps out, puts some distance between them before Carol charges in again. Maria blocks Carol's forearm with hers, and then drops to sweep her leg out, twisting beneath Carol as she jumps over it. They've done this often enough over the years that it's easy to let the rhythm of it take over, attack and counterattack, their bodies breaking apart and coming back together again. The next time she gets a good look at Carol's face, in the middle of an attempted rush, Carol's grinning, and Maria can't help the answering smile that spreads across her face. She's breathing hard, her blood singing, ears warm. They'd learned about endorphins in class, but it always feels like more than that, more than a trick of biology, the natural effects of exercise and an elevated heart rate.

Being around Carol just makes Maria feel better, full stop. That's been true since day one, through the grueling weeks of BCT and the lingering disrespect and dismissal from their peers and professors over the next four years, the aches and pains of being the only two women in their squadron. Carol never asked, when Maria brought Monica back after her semester off, just accepted everything at face value — a mother and her newborn daughter trying to find their way through the world — and for that, Maria was grateful. The United States Air Force Academy was no place to raise a child, but they'd made it work.

There had been no question that Maria would still finish on time. How quickly she could catch up was only a matter of how hard she was willing to work.

They're both panting now, sweaty, skin tight and tingling. The sun is about to become a problem very soon, rising as it does from the east. Carol catches Maria's left shoulder with a glancing blow, and Maria oversells the impact so that she can hook an arm beneath Carol's leg and heft her backward. The air whooshes out of Carol's chest as she hits the soft grass, and Maria leverages her whole body to press her down, elbow digging into her pec, Carol's hair spilled out in a halo around her head.

Maria grins. "Ready to call it?"

Instead of replying, Carol surges up to kiss her, quick and messy and hard. Maria can't say it's a surprise, but it still makes her go tense enough for Carol to slip out of the hold and flip them over.

Maria squints up, exhaling sharply. "That's cheating, you know?"

Carol smiles down at her, hair tickling Maria's face, still close enough that they can feel each other's breath as it evens out. "Yeah, well. You were always better than me at hand-to-hand. I had to even the odds." She laughs when Maria raises her eyebrows. "You think people out there are gonna fight fair?"

"Nah, but that's why we have the stealth jets," Maria says.

Carol laughs again. "True," she says. "True."

She's sobered by the time she lets Maria up to sit cross-legged, peering out over the empty facilities. The sun's really starting to come up over the horizon now, soccer nets casting long shadows across the lawn. Behind them, they can hear the sounds of campus coming alive, the other early birds starting to stir. In a few hours, they're going to march across the parade field in their dress blues and toss their hats in the air, and then God knows where they'll be shipped off to. Not a lot of people are chomping at the bit to recruit women who can't even fly combat missions, especially one with a baby out of wedlock.

If Carol had just wanted to spar, they could've done it in the student quad, no mild breaking and entering necessary. If she'd just wanted to kiss, they should've done that in the privacy of their dorm room, without worry of attracting the wrong kind of attention, while Monica's staying with her grandparents for this week of graduation festivities. This is — different.

When Maria turns, Carol's regarding her quietly, knees hugged into her chest, ear tilted against her pillowed arms.

"Where do you think we're gonna end up?" she asks, as if reading Maria's mind. "After officer training this summer."

"I don't know," Maria says, purposefully light. "But stay in touch, huh? Monica's gonna miss you."

Carol's mouth twists. "I could always request a transfer, or do _something_ —"

"Carol," Maria says, chewing on the inside of her cheek for a moment. "You don't have to do that."

"Sure, but I want to," Carol says, reaching out to tangle their fingers together. "I promise I'll find my way back."

Maria's heart does something funny in her chest, a little backflip. She squeezes Carol's hand, warm and still kind of sweaty. It's not a promise Carol's likely to be able to keep, but regardless: for now, it's enough.

"We're gonna do it, right?" Carol says, after a long breath. "We're gonna be great, no matter what happens."

"We got this far," Maria says. "There's nowhere to go but up."

**Works inspired by this one:**

  * [on the cusp [Podfic]](https://archiveofourown.org/works/19424935) by [blackglass](https://archiveofourown.org/users/blackglass/pseuds/blackglass)




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